Ellen addresses Mark Kirk’s BS regarding pay equity. I’ve added in some Kirk commentary:
Kirk over simplifies and generally misleads constituents about the Paycheck Fairness Act by omission.
Corporate wage secrecy is one of the enablers of wage discrimination. You might remember that Lilly Ledbetter lost her ability to sue for wage discrimination compensation because she was unable to timely discover that she was the victim of wage discrimination. The PFA works to avoid that unjust outcome in making it illegal for an employer to rataliate against workers inquiring about their employers’ wage practices or disclosing their own wages to other workers. Under the PFA, defending employers are required to show that wage gaps truly are the result of factors other than sex discrimination, and U.S. Department of Labor is finally required to do its job as related to equal pay issues such as collecting wage-related data, a practice it used to have and stopped.
Oh my god, Becky, look at her butt
It is so big
She looks like one of those rap guys girlfriends
Who understands those rap guys
They only talk to her because she looks like a total prostitute, ok?
I mean her butt
It’s just so big
I can’t believe it’s so round
It’s just out there
I mean, it’s gross
Look, she’s just so black
Kirk would have constituents believe that the PFA is a wage discrimination rather than wage equity bill claiming that it requires women to give up control of their legal actions against employers. That is nonsense. With all the timing issues described in the Ledbetter case, and with all the limits and caps keeping pay equity awards low under current law, women have had few viable wage discrimination cases to begin with. Under PFA women are able to understand where they fit into the pay scale and can be awarded full compensatory and punative damages as are awarded in wage discrimination cases based on race or ethnicity.
I like big butts and I can not lie
You other brothers can’t deny
That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waste
And a round thing in your face
You get sprung
Wanna pull up front
Cuz you notice that butt was stuffed
Deep in the jeans she’s wearing
I’m hooked and I can’t stop staring
Oh, baby I wanna get with ya
And take your picture
My homeboys tried to warn me
But with that butt you got
Me so horny
Ooh, rub all of that smooth skin
You say you wanna get in my Benz
Well use me, use me cuz you ain’t that average groupy
The class opt-out provisions of PFA that Kirk disfavors actually helps women maintain gender based pay discrimination class action lawsuits. Opt-out provisions are considered valid due process and the general class action federal rules were changed in 1966 to adopt the opt-out method with most states adopting the federal rule. The idea of a class action suit is to remove the requirement of joining every single possible plaintiff individually. The older opt-in process was rejected by the federal rules and many courts in the 1960s because they created joinder issues that the class action suit was designed to avoid and prevented classes from becoming large enough to obtain class certification without which cases would be dismissed. The public policy of the opt-out rule was most articulately described in a well known California case, Carlson v. Superior Court, 33 Cal.App.3d (July 25, 1973), where the court described its reasons for disfavoring opt-in requirements with complex notice procedures:
I’ve seen them dancin’
The hell with romancin’
She sweat, wet, got it goin’ like a turbo ‘Vette
I’m tired of magazines
saying flat butt’s the only thing
Take the average black man and ask him that
She gotta pack much back, so
Fellas (yeah), fellas (yeah)
Has your girlfriend got the butt (hell yeah)
Well shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake that healthy butt
Baby got back
(LA face with Oakland booty)
I like’em round and big
And when I’m throwin’ a gig
I just can’t help myself
I’m actin like an animal
Now here’s my scandal
We fear that the notice procedure employed by Edison is susceptible of great abuse. In essence, plaintiffs’ attorneys will be forced to expend extraordinary time and effort to round up persons of a disorganized class with whom they probably have had no prior contact; such occurred in the instant case. Prospective deponents who do not heed informal efforts on the part of counsel and do not appear will face potential exclusion. Thus, a defendant can effectively stifle a class action at the discovery stage, either by imposing impossibly expensive burdens on the named plaintiffs or by chipping away at the size of the class through exclusion of the unnamed plaintiffs. It is especially vital to prevent such ‘chilling’ of class actions in light of their new importance as a litigation tool, presaged by recent federal cases and our own decisions in Daar v. Yellow Cab, supra, 67 Cal.2d 695 [63 Cal.Rptr. 724, 433 P.2d 732] and Vasquez v. Superior Court, supra, 4 Cal.3d 800 [94 Cal.Rptr. 796, 484 P.2d 964].” (Italics added.)
I wanna get you home
And ugh, double ugh, ugh
I ain’t talkin’ bout Playboy
Cuz silicone parts were made for toys
I wannem real thick and juicy
So find that juicy double
Mixalot’s in trouble
Beggin’ for a piece of that bubble
So I’m lookin’ at rock videos
Watchin’ these bimbos walkin’ like hoes
You can have them bimbos
I’ll keep my women like Flo Jo
A word to the thick soul sistas
I wanna get with ya
I won’t cus or hit ya
But I gotta be straight when I say I wanna fuck
Til the break of dawn
Baby, I got it goin on
A lot of pimps won’t like this song
Cuz them punks like to hit it and quit it
But I’d rather stay and play
Cuz I’m long and I’m strong
And I’m down to get the friction on
So ladies (yeah), ladies (yeah)
If you wanna role in my Mercedes (yeah)
Then turn around
Stick it out
Even white boys got to shout
Baby got back
(LA face with the Oakland booty)
The effect of an opt-in requirement can be seen in a recent California case, Hypertouch Inc. v. Superior Court of San Mateo County, 128 Cal. App. 4th 1527 (May 5, 2005), wherein the court noted and upheld an opt-out requirement because under an opt-in procedure that was being used under a particular statute that did not follow the general rule, out of more than 100,000 estimated class members in that case, only 55 actually “opted-in.”
A New York court recently made a similar observation in Guzman v. VLM, Inc. d/b/a Reliable Bakery, Case No. 07-CV-1126, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The court in Guzman concluded that opt-out was appropriate because “workers might be reluctant to affirmatively opt-in to the case for fear or reprisal and retaliation.”
In the name of helping women, Kirk is actually seeking to prevent women from building viable class size to maintain class action suits. This is a common corporate defense strategy against class action suits.
You can read more about the PFA at the National Women’s Law Center and see why this bill is vital for American working women.
Yeah baby
When it comes to females
Cosmo and got nothin to do with my selection
36-24-36
Only if she’s 5’3″
So your girlfriend rolls a Honda
Playin’ workout tapes by Fonda
But Fonda ain’t got a motor in the back of her Honda
My anaconda don’t want none unless you’ve got buns hon
You can do side bends or sit-ups, but please don’t lose that butt
Some brothers wanna play that hard role
and tell you that the butt need to go
So they toss it and leave it
And I pull up quick to retrieve it
So Cosmo says you’re fat
Well I ain’t down with that
Cuz your waste is small and your curves are kickin’
And I’m thinkin’ bout stickin’
To the beanpole dames in the magazines
You ain’t it Miss Thang
Give me a sista I can’t resist her
Red beans and rice didn’t miss her
Some knucklehead tried to dis
Cuz his girls were on my list
He had game but he chose to hit ’em
And pulled up quick to get with ’em
So ladies if the butt is round
And you wanna triple X throw down
Dial 1-900-mixalot and kick them nasty thoughts
Baby got back
In essence, plaintiffs’ attorneys will be forced to expend extraordinary time and effort to round up persons of a disorganized class with whom they probably have had no prior contact; such occurred in the instant case.